After stints as editor of Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, Talk (among others) and a quirky TV talk show, Topic A (I watched!), Tina Brown launches a news, buzz and aggregator web site today, with backing from Barry Diller and IAC.

See: http://www.thedailybeast.com/ She has a Q&A page which answers all your questions about who, why and why now.

PaidContent reveals Tina Brown's answer to the Huffington Post:-

By now, anyone who’s been paying attention knows that Tina Brown’s online project with Barry Diller’s backing is called The Daily Beast after the paper in Evelyn Waugh’s Scoop. Brown’s high-profile move to the web from glossy print is scheduled to go live Monday at 7 a.m. eastern, in the softest of launches, scant months after a team was assembled in the Gehry-designed IAC headquarters. It’s meant as a smart one-stop news shop, an effort to break new ground in news aggregation by mixing lots of outbound links with heavy doses of curation and original content.

Consumer magazines have always been slower than their newspaper and B2B cousins to enter the digital arena. I wonder if The Daily Beast will change all that and encourage Vogue, Vanity Fair and other high end titles to put more effort into their digital offering. Such competition can only lead to better designed websites and livelier content as more people with different skills get involved.

What should a well designed website look like? 8 August 2008

Über neuartige Raketenantriebe, bemannte und unbemannte Mond- und Marsmissionen, über die Zukunft der ISS und internationale Kooperation der Raumfahrtgesellschaften wurde beim 59. International Astronautical Congress in Glasgow vom 29.9. bis zum 3.10.2008 diskutiert. Mit etwa 1600 in den Technical Sessions vorgestellten Arbeiten war dies der bisher inhaltlich umfangreichste IAC.

ESA, JAXA, CSA und NASA unterstützen jährlich Studenten, am IAC teilzunehmen. Durch die ESA bekam ich die Möglichkeit, vom 28.9. bis zum 4.10 in Glasgow zu verbringen.

Die Seite der Veranstaltung: http://www.iac2008.co.uk/
Fotos auf Flickr: http://flickr.com/photos/errani/tags/glasgow/

Yahoo Reorgs Connected Life Division; Next Phase Focused On Making Money On Mobile -- Yahoo is reorganizing the Connected Life division with the intention of actually making money. The reorganization, announced internally today at an all-hands meeting, includes a management shuffle and the new goal of contributing to Yahoo’s bottom line by 2009, according to an email we obtained. The email was sent out today to employees by Marco Boerries, Yahoo’s EVP of the Connected Life Division, who also made the announcement at a meeting this morning.

Interview: MediaNews’ Singleton On What’s Ailing Newspapers: It’s The Economy, Not The Internet -- It’s been a rough few years for the newspaper business. With the migration of readers and advertisers from print to online, and then the past year’s economic downturn and market meltdown this month, it’s hard to figure out where the fixes are going to come from. William Dean Singleton, CEO of Denver-based publisher MediaNews Group, believes he can address the challenge presented by online media to newspapers by tying print and interactive ad sales more closely together and by relying on cooperative services from Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), the AP and real estate ad net Zillow. But the economy, that’s a whole other problem. I spoke with Singleton following Yahoo’s heralding of its APT display ad sales delivery and targeting system last week. During the Yahoo press conference, Singleton said he expects up to 22 percent of the privately-held company’s revenue this year will come from online newspapers, with that number reaching 50 percent in five years. Rather than looking too far ahead though, our conversation focused on the here and now.

AP Signs Up 500 Papers For Online News Sharing Service --- While the Associated Press has been trying to beat back threats to defect by member newspapers over the fee structure being implemented next year, a sizable number are still interested in sticking around to take advantage of its growing web tools. The wire service company says that 500 newspapers have signed up for AP Member Marketplace, the online system that lets its subscribers exchange stories, photos and graphics. The service, which was unveiled back in April, is set to get some enhancements this week. In Ohio, 53 papers have asked for access so far, with 45 in Pennsylvania and 26 in Texas are among the 20 states where 10 or more member newspapers have signed up.

AOL Brings Back Digital City As (Yet Another) Blog -- In keeping with AOL’s blog-a-week rollout that it’s been doing for the past year to revamp its portal site, the Time Warner company is looking back to its Digital City brand. The site used to resemble *IAC’s* CitySearch network, but Digital City’s new incarnation is more of a general interest blog, with the entertainment, food and nightlife topics underpinning its posts. Perhaps trying too hard to depart from the old Digital City, the site’s postings represent a farrago of topics: a paean to gourmet grill cheese is sandwiched between a post on the upcoming vice presidential candidates’ debate and a post critiquing media coverage of John McCain’s closeness to the gambling business. The general nature of the site makes it more curious as to why AOL needs another site like this, especially when its been sharpening its offerings with sites like the new female focused Lemondrop and the older male counterpart Asylum. Either way, it represents more space to sell ads in struggling display market. Like the other sites, the revamped Digital City’s ads will be handled by Platform-A, AOL’s online ad group.

Broadband ISPs Vow Ad-Targeting To Be ‘Opt-In’ In Congressional Hearing -- Although they don’t currently target ads to their broadband subscribers, representatives from AT&T, Time Warner Cable, and Verizon Communications appeared before a Senate committee and promised to adopt a system that would seek customers permission first before serving behavioral ads, ClickZ reported. In a period of increased scrutiny on behavioral targeting, cable companies and telcos are still holding out hope that they can convince lawmakers to allow the industry to self-regulate. Both houses of Congress have been looking into online ad targeting since the summer, when Charter Communications executives were summoned to Capitol Hill to outline a planned test of behavioral ad provider Nebuad’s system.

First, some background...

GITEC is the Government Information Technology Executive Council (GITEC). (To be honest with you, I've always been confused about the councils and how these organizations work, their relationship with the American Council for Technology (ACT). As far as I understand it, the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) is also one of ACT's councils. AFFIRM is also among them. To be completely honest, I'm unclear about how they work and I'm unclear why they are all necessary. But... maybe we can talk about that later or somebody can explain it to me.)

GITEC's big event is the annual IPIC, which is one of the big government IT conferences of the year and has been held in Orlando, Fla. for some time in the late winter. IPIC 2009 will mark the 25th anniversary, so it has been around for some time. But these are different and challenging times. There is so much competition for people's time -- and money. And then there are so many conferences out there these days. So GITEC and IPIC have been facing a growing chorus of grumbling for the last several years. And there was some quiet talk about whether GITEC and IPIC were necessary these days. (There were a number of people at IPIC 2008 earlier this year who had not attended in a number of years and were shocked that conference had not evolved.)

Somewhat paradoxically, much of it came to a head just before the start of the GITEC IPIC 2008 conference earlier this year. (Perhaps somebody could have predicted that given that the theme of GITEC's IPIC 2008 was "Transforming the infrastructure: Managing and protecting data for the future.")

As they traditionally do, the GITEC board met on the Saturday, March 1 before IPIC started for one of its regular meetings.

These meetings are traditionally largely a formality. This one ended up being a more... how do they say it over at the State Department... a more frank and honest discussion then I gather typically happens at these gatherings. During that session NASA Goddard CIO and GITEC board member Linda Cureton gave a presentation, which she called, "Heroes needed for GITEC." You can see that presentation here.

[I should note specifically that I did not get this presentation from Cureton. I should also not that I did not get it from Anne Armstrong, president of the 1105 Government Information Group and my former boss. Armstrong serves as a member of the GITEC executive advisory board. I generally have not spoken to her about the issues facing GITEC and IPIC -- either when I was at FCW or since -- because I felt it put her in an uncomfortable postion as a GITEC executive advisory board member. All of that being said, there were many people in the session.]

In her March presentation, Cureton essentially says that IPIC -- and by extension GITEC -- need to change.

It's interesting because when I spoke to many of the board members and the executive advisory board, at that time there were fairly sharply divergent opinions about the state of the GITEC and IPIC. (The GITEC board is made up of feds. The Executive Advisory Board has no voting authority. They provide advice to the GITEC board.)

Essentially, Cureton said that GITEC is "dying and needs to be saved." While she highlighted a number of the organization's strength, she noted that GITEC has a weak management infrastructure, has been unable to expand beyond IPIC, and lacks a strategic focus.

One of the obvious issues facing the GITEC board is the length of IPIC. There have been ongoing complaints about IPIC's length -- Sunday through Thursday -- and cost -- the Renaissance Sea World hotel just across from Sea World has proven to be expensive.

Cureton recommended shortening IPIC, selecting a location that is closer to Washington, D.C., and having GITEC leverage the ACT infrastructure. (ACT and IAC have full-time, paid staff; GITEC does not. I believe the recommendation would be to have ACT/IAC essentially run IPIC the way the ACT/IAC runs MOC and ELC.)

Again, at the time, there were very divergent opinions on the board. At the time, the consensus of the board seemed to be that, while they agreed with Cureton's viewpoint, they thought the timing was wrong coming just before the start of IPIC.

Then there is a contingent of GITEC board members who don't think GITEC nor IPIC is broken. One board member noted that attendance is up -- I heard a range of number of government attendees, all of them between 150-165. This board member noted that they have been doing well with sponsors and getting companies on the exhibit floor. And, this board member said, the conference agenda has improved in recent years. And IPIC has given away a lot of money to charities over the years.

By contrast, there are a group of board members -- and a number of the Executive Advisory Board -- who believe that IPIC simply has not evolved. And there are many people that I spoke to who believe that GITEC is... broken may be too strong, but it may not be that far off.

Unfortunately the board does not hold its meetings in public, so there is no open discussion of these kinds of issues. Several board members said that Cureton raised issues that the board has known about and discussed. Again, the meetings are not held in public, so there is no way of knowing. My sense is that GITEC's issues have been acknowledged, but they have not been discussed in a truly public way. Instead, they have been discussed around the edges. Again, I should note that I am not in the GITEC board meetings.

I give Cureton a lot of credit for bringing the issues front and center, opening it up to discussion.

And, in fact, I think it had an impact. GITEC is changing. I don't have any official word from GITEC board members. The current GITEC president, who I believe is FBI's Gail Scavongelli, and the former president Scott Craig of the Department of Vetarans Affairs, did not respond to various e-mails. I have, however, spoken to many of the board members as well as many of the members of the advisory board. If GITEC officials want to talk, I will certainly post their comments.

What I have been able to cull from those semi-official sources is that there IPIC -- and GITEC -- are changing and evolving. From what I hear, this will be the last year that IPIC will be held at the Renisance hotel. GITEC is also actively considering shortening the conference -- perhaps following the model used by many of the conferences these days where they start Sunday and finish up mid-day on Tuesday. The board is also looking at whether there needs to be a show floor. And, in a significant move, GITEC has also decided not to renew its agreement with Jim Dean, who had run IPIC's operations for several years and has proven to be very controversial.

Over the weekend, I got a note from Dean:

As Dean mentioned, GITEC has apparently hired Technology Forums, apparently without putting the opportunity out to bid. I have no doubt whatsoever that there would have been several bidders. My former employer, the 1105 Government Information Group, has an entire events team -- and there are many others out there. Joanne Connelly's ConnellyWorks, for example, helped me with FCW's Government Leadership Summit earlier this year and has run the state of Virginia's Commonwealth of Virginia Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS) for several years. And there are others... the Digital Government Institute... or Hosky Communications. I don't fully understand why one wouldn't put the conference management out for competition.

So... stay tuned. I hope we will hear more as IPIC and GITEC evolve. And a big kudos to Linda Curtin for saying to the board what many have been saying privately.

There are other issues here, but... more later.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

U.K. Vid Stats: 27 Million People Watched 3 Billion Online Videos; Google sites (read: YouTube) attracted nearly 50 percent of all videos viewed online. (comScore)

Google Labs Launches Audio Indexing; new site expands on the transcription and indexing tool launched a couple months ago with "search within video" and "sharing" features, as well as a new interface. (Google Blog)

Dailymotion Signs Deals With Web Rights Holders; video-sharing company signs pacts with three French unions giving rights holders ad-revenue sharing. (Variety)

More Content Companies at This Year's CES; Universal, MTV and Buena Vista have all secured exhibition space as the trade show makes a push for more programmer involvement. (Broadcasting & Cable)

Howard Stein Joins Freemantle; former Yahoo exec will develop and produce original online content. (Variety)

by Brad Sigal

St. Paul, MN - On the final day of the Republican National Convention, Sept. 4, over 1000 protesters took to the streets to deliver a strong anti-war message while John McCain was speaking. The march was initiated by the Twin Cities-based Anti-War Committee, with the theme, “No peace for the war-makers.”

Thousands of riot police repeatedly blocked the anti-war march from getting anywhere near the Xcel Center, even though there was supposed to be a ‘public viewing area’ that was to be open to any protesters until 11:00 pm each day of the RNC.

By the end of the march, hundreds of people were tear gassed and subjected to concussion grenades. 396 people were indiscriminately rounded up and arrested, including fifteen journalists. More people were arrested at this march than the rest of the Saint Paul RNC protests combined.

Demonstrators planned to march to the Xcel Center to show dissent while McCain officially accepted the Republican Party nomination for the presidency. Instead, riot police declared the march an ‘unlawful assembly’ and blocked every road leading toward the Xcel Center. Additionally, many workers in downtown Saint Paul were told to leave work early and police largely shut down downtown Saint Paul.

According to Meredith Aby of the Anti-War Committee, “The Republicans must have felt very threatened by an anti-war march during McCain’s speech. The level of repression was shocking to everyone who saw it. A local Fox 9 news reporter referred to it as looking like a ‘police state.’ Even Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman’s own brother, Nick Coleman, wrote a column calling Saint Paul a ‘police statelet.’ They pulled out all the stops to prevent an anti-war message from getting anywhere near the Xcel Center while McCain spoke, but their plan backfired. Their attempt to silence us only assured the anti-war message would get widespread media coverage.”

Struggle for the right to march to the Xcel Center

The Anti-War Committee received a permit to rally at the Capitol until 7:00 pm in January and applied for a permit march to the Xcel Center. Although they were issued the permit to rally at the Capitol until 7:00 pm, they were only issued a permit to march until 5:00 pm, which was four hours before McCain would be speaking. The Anti-War Committee never accepted the 5:00 pm limitation on the march permit, announcing months in advance their intention to start the march at 5:00 pm regardless and waging a months-long battle for the right to march in the evening while the Republican nominee spoke, not during the day while little was happening inside the Xcel Center.

The morning of the march, Sept. 4, Saint Paul police officials in a press conference signaled that the march would be allowed to happen. At the beginning of the 3:45 p.m. rally, Saint Paul Police Sargent Lazoya approached the organizers and asked what their plan was. They told Sargent Lazoya that they would rally at 4:00 pm and march at 5:00 pm, as had been announced publicly for months. Lazoya responded by saying he just wanted to be on the same page, and never indicated in any way that the march would not be allowed to happen at 5:00 p.m.

Police provocations from start to end

But it quickly became clear that all would not be smooth sailing. During the rally at the Capitol, at one point two dozen riot police swept into the middle of the crowd to arrest two people who were just sitting and listening to the band Junkyard Empire, which was playing on the stage at the time. Many observers saw it as a clear effort by the police to provoke the crowd into reacting so that they could shut down the rally before the march. After a tense standoff, organizers succeeded in returning the focus to the stage and the rally continued.

As 5:00 pm neared, an Anti-War Committee member announced from the stage that the march would begin at 5:00 pm. Riot police had begun massing in large numbers behind the stage, making it seem that the rally would likely be forcibly ended at any moment, even though the Anti-War Committee had a permit to rally at the Capitol until 7:00 pm. Sergeant Lazoya then hurriedly returned to talk to march organizers, saying that he had never said it was OK to march at 5:00 pm and that the permit ended at 5:00 pm and that they would not be allowed to march off Capitol grounds. The march organizers told him they were going to march as planned, the situation was announced to the crowd, and the march promptly began just before 5:00 pm.

According to Jess Sundin of the Anti-War Committee, “It was clear from the police intrusion into the crowd and other attempts to provoke the crowd during the rally, along with the massing of riot police behind the stage before 5:00, that the police had no intention to respect our right to rally or march, permit or not. If we wouldn’t have marched away from the Capitol when we did, the police appeared ready to seize the stage and sweep through the crowd to make more arrests right there at the Capitol before we even marched.”

Routes blocked but marchers persist

The march set off on the grassy area on the Capitol grounds and made it into the street, cutting over toward John Ireland Boulevard. After arriving at the bridge that goes over Interstate 94, riot police scurried around and assembled on the other side of the bridge, blocking the protesters’ path. The front of the march hunkered down on the bridge, with about a hundred protesters sitting down in front of the police at the front of the march.

In the back of the march, protesters held the intersection leading onto the bridge while riot cops assembled on two of the three sides of the intersection around them. After a while one set of riot police withdrew as protesters on bikes started circling the intersection, slowly claiming more space for the protest and preventing police from blocking the protest in as easily. At the entrance to the bridge the protest took on a festive atmosphere as people began chalking anti-war messages on the street and a group of protesters on bikes and skateboards rode around singing Solidarity Forever and other protest songs, while anti-war chants continued so the message of the march was clear.

After about an hour at that intersection, the marchers sitting down at the front of the march voted on whether to hold their ground and possibly get arrested there, or whether to try marching a different route to the Xcel Center. The people voted to march, so the march suddenly sprang back to life, first heading back onto Capitol grounds then swinging back around and surging into Cedar Avenue, heading toward 12th Street. Marchers tried to get across 12th Street before riot police could block the bridge there as they had done at John Ireland Boulevard. The protest succeeded in taking the intersection but couldn’t get across the bridge before the police formed a line and blocked them from going further. A line of riot police on horses formed to hold back protesters, leading to the march’s second standoff, at 12th and Cedar.

After taking over the intersection, dozens of protesters again sat down in front of the cops on horses, preventing the riot police’s horses from stampeding and holding their ground and avoiding being pushed back. Over a period of an hour or so, the police arrested all the people sitting in the intersection there, which included most of the leadership of the march from the Anti-War Committee. A few minutes after finishing that group of arrests, riot police surged deeper into the crowd and plucked out and arrested the remaining Anti-War Committee members who were leading the protest. Then police then attempted to push the whole crowd out of the street, pressing hundreds of people up a small hill.

Returning again to Capitol grounds, the protesters then regrouped and attempted to turn back down John Ireland Boulevard heading toward the bridge where they had initially attempted to cross over Interstate 94 to get to the Xcel Center. Marching in that direction, all routes leading down toward the Xcel Center were heavily fortified with riot police and the police even fortified some intersections with heavy machinery such as bulldozers and snowplows.

Unable to continue down John Ireland Boulevard, the march turned right toward Marion Street, which police hastily blocked off in the direction heading toward the Xcel Center. So with all possible roads toward the Xcel Center blocked, marchers instead turned away from the Xcel Center, going right on Marion and heading toward University Avenue, a major Twin Cities thoroughfare. This seemed to confuse the police, and allowed the march to regroup, opening the possibility of either heading back to Capitol grounds, or taking a longer route swinging back toward the Xcel Center a different way.

Teargas and mass arrests as night falls

At this point it was getting dark outside. Marchers took over the east-bound half of University Avenue. After marching a block to the east, riot police decided to take drastic measures to end the demonstration before McCain’s scheduled speaking time. They blocked marchers in front and behind, leaving no street to escape down, then began a fast flurry of teargas and concussion grenades.

This sent the bulk of the marchers streaming into Sears parking lot, with others streaming from there across Marion into the McDonalds parking lot and onto surrounding neighborhood streets. Those that couldn’t get across Marion were rounded up in the Sears parking lot then blocked in on the Marion bridge. Over 100 more people were arrested one by one, bringing the total number of arrests for the whole demonstration to 396. This included arresting fifteen journalists who were covering the march.

Meredith Aby of the Anti-War Committee concluded, “The march sent a sharp and determined anti-war message to John McCain, the RNC, and all politicians who refuse to end the war. In spite of a climate of intense police intimidation and repression, over 1000 people put themselves on the line on the last day of the RNC to send a strong message that the war must end now. It’s outrageous that a peaceful anti-war march was tear gassed and almost 400 people were arrested. The protesters showed tremendous solidarity in the face of massive abuses by hundreds of terrifying-looking riot police. Those that went to jail chanted, sang and shared stories together as they were carted away from the demonstration and processed. People who were at this protest, who were tear gassed and arrested, share an experience and bond that won’t go away and will only make the anti-war movement stronger and more determined.”

The Sept. 4 “No peace for the war-makers” demonstration was initiated by the Anti-War Committee and endorsed locally by the Welfare Rights Committee, Communities United Against Police Brutality, Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the University of Minnesota Students for a Democratic Society; national endorsers included the Colombia Action Network, the Troops Out Now Coalition, the International Action Center and the Act Now to Stop War and End Racism (ANSWER) Coalition.

This article is from Fight Back! News

Fight Back News Service | www.fightbacknews.org
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Maybe it was always that way, but now it's ultra-true because competition is just a nano-click away online -- especially when your product is a free email account. Yet somehow, the management and IT teams over at Excite didn't get this unwritten business memo.

I had an Excite email address for more than 10 years. Intially, I was an Excite power user -- I set it as my homepage, customized the page when they finally rolled out the functionality (well after Yahoo, Google and others, mind you), and kept the email address active out of nostalgia since it was my first email account. Hell, I even created a new account in my name about three years ago that I started using for just job-related emails, since my original one became a magnet for spam. I actively used both until two days ago.

More than a month ago, the crack IT team over at Excite launched an all-new email client. First of all, they did a lousy job telling their users this product modification was coming. And here lies the first moral for marketers: if you're drastically changing your product, you should let your customers know ahead of time why you are doing it. More importantly, you may want to even get their input on it, so they feel involved, loyal and positive about the change.

Now, last time I checked, it was 2008. So how you could possibly launch an email client in 2008 that is slow and offers less features is beyond me. Moral #2 for marketers right here: if you modify your product, you want to make sure it's actually an improvement. This new email client is unbelievably slow -- I've accessed it on all kind of connections, from cable modem to T3 to super-broadband, and it's the same slow load times. It also doesn't load messages in the browser window, it launches new windows -- and those windows battle with the basic pop-up blocker built into Internet Explorer and other browsers.

So I decided to email my long-term email provider and let them know I was unhappy. I found their feedback form and sent in a comment. This is the auto-response that popped up on-screen:

Due to increased volume, we may be unable to provide a prompt response to your question. We are currently upgrading our email service, and during this transition period, users may experience technical difficulties with their email. Please rest assured we are working hard to minimize any down time or technical issues.
The only format for Excite Email going forward will be the current one. While we have no plans to offer a Classic Excite version of our interface, we will forward your suggestions and comments to the appropriate department here at Excite for further consideration.
We are working with our partner provider to offer an alternate color scheme, as well as a "Lite" version that will ease the resource strain on older computers and/or slower connections.

Translation: "We don't care how unhappy you are, you are stuck with this lousy interface forever." C'mon, Excite. "Ease the resource strain" on my broadband connection?

Anyway, I read further into the message and found a feedback form that is dedicated to feedback on their new email interface. Eureka! My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. I sent in a comment, and this screen popped up:

Translation: "Thanks for wasting your time. Do you really believe we'll read those comments?" Moral #3 for marketers: You owe it to your customers to act like you care, and if you ask for and receive customer feedback, you owe it to them to proactively respond and tell them how you care. And let's slip in a fourth moral too: if you're new product is lousy, do something quick to fix it (ever hear of New Coke?)

If you don't infuse your business with these morals, you're going to lose your customers (I cleaned out years worth of saved files, turned on the auto-respond message, and moved over to Gmail) and then have to deal with the really irate ones writing blogs and telling basically everyone they know how lousy your company is (and in this case, your IT team, too). And you know how fast that stuff spreads online.

Turns out Excite is owned by IAC, who owns a bunch of prominent online brands (eVite, CitySearch, Match.com, a bunch more...and you can't "match" them with a good email client?). When you visit their site, the first big heading you see is "About IAC." Well, looks like that's all it's about when you deal with them.

While IM, text and email are firmly planted into our daily rituals (unless you are under the age of 21, where communication is via a social network site). Recently, the question of this convergence bubbled to the surface as I spoke with a 17 year old and found out he and his friends rarely, if never, used their email accounts? His group of friends, not unlike other people his age, supposedly converse via the platforms such as Facebook. You dont use email I asked?

Is this a tidal shift in user adoption or a "stage of life" whereas once the late teens and early collegiate kids hit the work world, their email address will become indespensible...like the rest of us? Or, will Facebook (or fill in the blank social media platform supplant email and its ilk to become the connectivity factor that is dominant?

Thinking more on this subject, if social media becomes the entry point to the web and THE platform for communcation, then a more personalized experience will gradually morphy/evolve from the static experience of today. Thus, virtual worlds (or elements of these experiences - games, sticky apps, personalization via avatars, etc) will make their way into the mainstream dialogue.

Thus, I took a look at a few of the virtual worlds that are teeming with small, but very active users. Sites such as Gaia with their bobble heads focusing on the early teen market with their sticky casual games made me think the casual game market is going to continue to explode. 

Club Penguin, geared towards the 6-14 year old was not that interesting but then again I wasnt the target demo! Hangout.net and the ability to personalize one's "room" was intriguing in that its controlled experience, ie one room (unlike Second Life's free for all) suggested personalization for the college dorm set.

There.com which was geared towards late teens, provided hip avatars that personified the zeitgeist of that age bracket - wanting to be someone much cooler than reality!  Habbo was another interesting site that focused on the early teen market and had an active chat community. I wont touch on Second Life, arguably the most profound and social developed of all sites with its DYI model and functioning currency.

Other sites caught my attention, like Moove with its edgy avatars seemingly geared towards an older audience.

Active Worlds was another DYI build and linux based for the more sophisticated EE amongst us. Zwinky, which was bought by IAC was geared entirely at the tween girl market. Other sites that hit my radar were Stardoll for the late teen demo, whose consumption oriented fashionista behaviors seemed the most likely for ecommerce based revenue streams. Kaneva with their edgy avatars had a high "cool" factor.

Google's Lively (which I couldnt access since they dont support Mac based OS....annoying) is a must see at this point, despite a lack of fanfare from those I know who have toyed with their app. Meez, a site with 3d avatars and games was another site speaking to the interactivity of entertainment and personalization,

Sites that I plan to review are Cyworld and Roma Victor (an MMORPG based on Hadrian's wall and Rome;  where in 2007, corporal punishment was instituted amongst its players for crimes against others for misdeeds).

Barry Diller's IAC/InterActive today officially will spin off four of its main properties as free-standing, public companies. The move -- which affects IAC assets such as cable shopping network HSN and Ticketmaster -- is intended to show investors, who have seen share prices drop 51% in the last five years, that the streamlined organization can run more efficiently and profitably. The Wall Street Journal (8/21)

Since 2004, the last time there was a presidential election and an Olympics, the average viewer watched 14.5 hours of TV on cable per week and 8.3 hours of broadcast. Now, according to Turner Broadcasting System Chief Research Officer Jack Wakshlag, that same average viewer is sitting down to 15.7 hours of cable per week and 6.8 hours of broadcast. Broadcasting & Cable (8/20) , The Hollywood Reporter (8/20)

NBC Universal, home to cable networks such as USA and Oxygen, announced a $56 million acquisition of Carnival Film & Television, a company based in the U.K. The deal, according to this article, gives NBCU a production presence in the U.K., where filming is cheaper than many U.S. locations, and a step up on its goal to double nondomestic revenue by 2010. Reuters (8/21)

Nickelodeon, whose Kids Pick the President vote, has been on the money in four of the last five presidential elections, is getting ready for a raft of political programming this summer and fall. The action kicks off Sunday night with "Tales From the Trail," a half-hour special with host Linda Ellerbee that will focus on kids who actively support Sen. Barack Obama or Sen. John McCain. Broadcasting & Cable (8/20)

Lifetime has ordered six episodes of a documentary series about young socialites in Washington who mix and mingle in the Beltway fundraiser scene. The series, titled "Blonde Charity Mafia," begins production next month. Variety (8/20)

Buyers Not Supporting Google-Yahoo Deal -- In the next month, the Department of Justice will decide whether to block the search advertising deal Google struck with Yahoo in June. If everything goes according to plan, Google will begin selling ads on Yahoo Search in early October. In the meantime, the DoJ is soliciting input on what the deal would mean for the ad industry, and while Microsoft's stance is well-known, it's more notable-and perhaps, more surprising-that many big advertisers do not support the deal, either. "We're concerned about the Yahoo! deal," said Rob Norman, CEO of WPP-owned GroupM North America. "For advertisers to prosper, they need competitive markets. We think Google is a fantastic company. Our sense is that if the transaction with Yahoo! proceeds, there's the potential the development of Panama and other competing systems will atrophy over time."

Olympics Fuels Ad Spend Boom In China -- Thanks to the Beijing Olympics and the growing strength of Chinese consumers, ad spending in China is expected to grow more than 20% this year to $35 billion, according to a new study from GroupM. The Internet--which is expected to command 7.3% of ad investment this year, and 8.5% next year--is China's fastest-growing medium, and is on track to become the second-largest ad medium after TV within a few years, according to the study.

IAC Spinoff Set For Next Week; Five Companies As Of Aug. 21 -- IAC finally has set the date for its long-awaited split into five separate companies to take place: Aug. 21. Before that, the “when-issued” trading period in the common stock of HSN, Inc., Interval Leisure Group, Inc., Ticketmaster and Tree.com, Inc. and IAC will happen Tuesday, Aug. 12. The trading will occur on a post-distribution basis and, in the case of IAC, a Board approved post-one-for-two reverse stock split, basis, under the symbols “HSNIV,” “IILGV,” “TKTMV,” “TREEV” and “IACIV,” respectively. The “when-issued” trading period comes following the SEC declaring the S-1 registration statements for each of the spincos effective, and will continue up until the spin-offs. Shares of IAC common stock will also trade on a regular way basis during the period under its existing symbol, “IACI.”

Earnings: Liberty Interactive Q2 Revs Climb 9 Percent; Open To Deal For AOL Access -- Liberty Media president and CEO Greg Maffei said that the company sought to “take advantage of market weakness” in Q2 and so repurchased 18.1 million shares of Liberty Capital, reducing outstanding shares by 14 percent. In terms of the company’s Q2 performance, the Interactive group’s revenue increased 9 percent as adjusted OIBDA increased 4 percent. The company cited growth at QVC and Provide Commerce. The acquisitions of Backcountry.com and Bodybuilding.com in June 2007 and December 2007, respectively, also provided a year-over-year boost. Other highlights from the quarter included: Starz Entertainment revenue was up 8 percent to $275 million and adjusted OIBDA increased 24 percent to $68 million. The unit’s operating expenses increased 4 percent due to increased SG&A expenses associated with a new Starz branding campaign. Liberty Capital group’s revenue increased 33 percent to $174 million. Through the DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) share buyback, Liberty’s ownership of DirecTV increased to over 49 percent, though voting control remains at 48 percent per a standstill agreement.

Napster Q2 Revs Fall; Paid Subs Drop Sharply -- Struggling online music player Napster has reported Q2 revenue of $30.3 million, a decline of 5.9 percent from $32.2 million a year ago. Net loss was fairly flat at $4.3 million ($.10 per share) compare to a loss of $4.2 million ($.10 per share) a year ago. The company said it had 708,000 paid subs at the end of the quarter, a decline from 760,000 at the end of Q1. The company also touts good results from its new MP3 store, but it’s hard to get a grip on what these numbers actually mean: ”The introduction of MP3’s into our line-up has created positive trends for Napster with increases to visitation and user engagement. In addition, track sales per subscriber were up 10% in July, month over month, with total track sales up 5% during the same period.” For the coming quarter, the company sees revenue of about $30 million again. In its 10-Q filed along with the release, the company explains the declining subscriber rolls (sort of): “Paid subscribers at June 30, 2008 were approximately 708,000 compared to 761,000 at March 31, 2008. This decrease occurred because new added subscribers were not sufficient to offset our normal cancellations during the period.”

Esa es la teoría que maneja el Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, aunque no hay información oficial del fenómeno. El Instituto no maneja ninguna hipótesis sobre el estruendo que se pudo oir. Las luces vistas la madrugada del pasado sábado en los cielos de Gran Canaria, que fueron acompañadas de un gran estruendo, pudieron deberse a la caída de un meteorito o bólido, explicó a Efe el astrónomo Javier Licandro, del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC).

Según las descripciones ofrecidas por varios testigos a los medios de comunicación locales, "todo parece indicar que fue algo que entró de fuera del espacio, un meteorito que genera un bólido, aunque también pudiera ser la caída de una pieza de un satélite espacial", afirmó Licandro. No obstante, el Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias no tuvo conocimiento directo del avistamiento ni ha recibido información oficial sobre la existencia del fenómeno. Varios testigos alertaron al servicio de emergencias 112 de Canarias de que el cielo se iluminó la madrugada del sábado en la isla de Gran Canaria, al tiempo que se escuchó un enorme estruendo, sin que se pudiera determinar el origen del suceso, confirmaron fuentes del 112. Según algunos testigos, sobre las cinco de la madrugada vieron una o dos bolas incandescentes dejando una estela en el cielo y después escucharon una enorme estruendo procedente del lugar.

De tratarse de un meteoro y si el cielo estaba despejado, en opinión del astrónomo Javier Licandro, debería haberse visto "una especie de "bola" iluminada, normalmente dejando una estela y posibles chisporroteos a su alrededor, con cambios de color". "Un fenómeno así ilumina todo el cielo porque es más brillante que la luna llena", añade el experto, quien reconoció que el ruido o "estruendo" percibido el sábado en Gran Canaria es habitual en la caída de bólidos.

No obstante, Licandro dijo que no entendía por qué el fenómeno, detectado en dirección noroeste a sureste, sólo se vio en Gran Canaria y no en Tenerife, cuando la distancia entre ambas islas canarias es poca. Según el investigador del IAC, es bastante normal que si se produce en Canarias la caída de un meteorito no se encuentren rastros ya que existe "una probabilidad altísima de que caiga en el agua", puesto que el archipiélago tiene una extensión de tierra de 7.446 kilómetros cuadrados sobre un área marítima de 100.000 kilómetros cuadrados de océano Atlántico.

Cuando un meteoro entra en el cielo terrestre origina un episodio luminoso visible por los testigos, que se denomina bólido o bola de fuego, que se produce cuando el meteoroide, a velocidades típicas entre 50.000 y 100.000 kilómetros por hora, encuentra la atmósfera terrestre y su superficie es calentada por la fricción que progresivamente produce la fragmentación y vaporización de sus componentes minerales.

Fuente: La Provincia

IAC/InterActiveCorp to make multiple buys under USD 100m -- IAC/InterActiveCorp., the New York-listed internet company, plans to engage in multiple buys, reported the Wall Street Journal. The report, part of a story looking at the company's second quarter results, cited IAC chief executive Barry Diller as saying the company plans to use USD 1.3bn in dividend payments from its spin-off to make multiple buys. According to the report, Diller said the deals will each be under USD 100m and if it can't find good targets it will return cash to shareholders. Source: Wall Street Journal

Dubai Group, Blackstone Eye Informa -- The Blackstone Group has teamed up with Investment Corp. Dubai to bid on UK media group Informa PLC (LSE: INF), according to The Financial Times. Earlier reports had an alternate consortium of Carlyle Group, Providence Equity Partners and Hellman & Friedman, but today’s FT story says that Hellman & Friedman has walked away.

Cobalt Rolls Out Search Tools -- Cobalt has developed a new set of paid search marketing tools under its PowerSearch automotive advertising platform. The tools, which are based on search traffic research and ongoing auto industry trends, offer clients new keywords and bidding strategies to capitalize on consumer interest in parts and services, as well as financing. The ads can run across Google, Yahoo and MSN.

Interpublic Makes HUGE Bet On Digital Marketing -- Taking a majority stake in online agency HUGE, Interpublic Group has bolstered its digital marketing capabilities. The deal gives Interpublic an interactive shop that specializes in building sophisticated, transactional Web sites for clients such as JetBlue, IKEA, Scholastic and Time Warner Music Group. Its clients' sites together generate $3.5 billion in annual revenue and draw more than 120 million visitors a month.

IAC: Search Ads Hold Up, While Display ‘Spotty’; Looking At All Deals, But Will Be Selective -- For its last call as a single company, all five CEOs and their CFOs are on IAC’s conference call. Kicking off the call, Diller noted that it’s not even worth talking about Old IAC anymore, in part because it’s almost gone, but really because “It’s just too much complexity and information.” That statement speaks as much to the company’s conference calls and earnings releases as it does to the whole notion of Old IAC: ‘just too much complexity’. Hence the breakup. Right now the company doesn’t have precise timing on the split, except that it will be “very soon”. Diller said he hoped to talk about all five companies on the call, and that he didn’t want New IAC to hog the time, but almost every question was on New IAC (NSDQ: IACI). At a couple of points, Diller, from the position as a shareholder in each company, took the job himself to ask questions of the other CEOs.

Amazon Launches Online Payment Services -- In a move to rival eBay’s PayPal and Google’s Google Checkout, Amazon launched on Tuesday two online payment services, Checkout and Simple Pay. The difference in the two is that Checkout provides capabilities to support real time shipping, tax calculation, promotions and other tasks like cancellations and shipment tracking, while Simple Pay enables customers to use payment information already on file.

IAC’s Life123 Comes To Life; Goals Include Saving You Time, Ranking Well In Search -- If you must think of every new thing as the “something-killer” then you’d probably call Life123 an About.com-killer, or a Mahalo killer, or a Google Knol killer. Fortunately, as Robert Deutsch, VP of content development & operations at the new IAC-owned unit, assured me, About.com doesn’t have to die for Life123 to thrive. We first broke the news that IAC was cooking up a new how-to aggregator back in April. At the time, we knew it as Life333.com, which was in fact an early name for the project. Turns out, in testing, users didn’t like the concept of dividing content into 3-minute, 30-minute and 3-hour chunks so that named got ditched for the current one. The new site still offers users the chance to dive into a topic at various depths from quick and dirty summaries to more thorough explorations.

24/7 Real Media’s COO Hsu Upped To CEO; Moore To Stay On As Chairman -- David Moore, the ad exec who has helped lead WPP Group interactive shop 24/7 Real Media since its days as a startup 12 years ago, is stepping aside as CEO and handing the reins to Jonathan Hsu effective immediately. Hsu, 36, previously served as 24/7’s EVP/COO. As part of the move, Moore will take a wider focus on crafting strategic relationships, recruitment and business development. He’ll also still work with WPP Digital on getting the various parts of the company to be more tightly integrated.

Yahoo Japan boss has not discussed sale of shares with Softbank or Yahoo -- Yahoo Japan's chief executive stated he has not discussed the potential sale of Yahoo Japan shares owned by Softbank or Yahoo. Cited in a Wall Street Journal report, Masahiro Inoue said he had not talked about any such sales with officials from California-based internet company Yahoo or Softbank, the Japanese mobile-telecoms group. Should Yahoo decide to sell its Yahoo Japan stock, Softbank would have the right of first refusal, Inoue pointed out. He added his belief that investment in the Asian region is important at a time when the Asian internet-services industry is experiencing strong growth, the report said. The piece noted that the company announced a first-quarter net profit of JPY 19.16bn (USD 177.6m), up 18% on the previous year; sales rose 16% to JPY 65.56bn. Source: mergermarket.

Google, Mediatel and several financial groups interested in acquiring Seznam -- Google, Mediatel, the Czech privately-owned publishing group, and some financial groups are interested in acquiring Seznam, the privately-owned Czech Internet portal, reported E15. The brief report cited another report in Ekonom.cz but did not name any sources for the information. It said the minimum price being asked was USD 900m. The report said it is understood that Microsoft has not been approached yet over buying Seznam. E15 said Ivo Lukacovic, Seznam’s majority owner, continued to deny that Seznam was being sold. Seznam is the largest Czech Internet portal, as earlier reported. Source: mergermarket.

Sohu.com Q2 Revs Up 162 Percent; Income Soars; Will IPO Games Unit Separately -- The major Chinese portals continue their torrid pace of growth, as Sohu.com (NSDQ: SOHU) announced Q2 revenue growth of 162 percent to $102 million. GAAP net income of $40.2 million or $1.02 per share was up over 600 percent from last year. The top-line was helped by 53 percent ad revenue growth, as well as 450 percent growth in non-advertising revenue, largely from online games. The company’s in-house developed MMO Tian Long Ba Bu grew 11.5 fold since its inception in May 2007. In addition to boosting the top line, it also helped expand profitability: Gross margins stood at 76 percent, compared to 61 percent in the year ago period.

According to the article, "The conference theme of Universal Action Now emphasizes the need for continued urgency in the worldwide response to HIV/AIDS, and for action on the part of all stakeholders."

For more on the conference schedule and participants, check out the article.  But here's my favorite part:

And joining this illustrious group of world leaders will be 12-year old Keren Gonzalez. Ms Gonzalez hails from Honduras, and has been actively involved in a number of HIV-related programmes aimed at young people since the age of 9, including acting as editor for the magazine, Infantil LLAVECITAS, aimed at children aged 8 to 12 years affected directly and indirectly by HIV/AIDS.

>> More on the 17th International AIDS Conference

The Intersocietal Accreditation Commission (IAC) is pleased to acknowledge that on July 9, 2008, the U.S. Senate passed the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (H.R. 6331).

What Bill requires

The bill requires that by 2012, providers of advanced diagnostic imaging services, inclusive of Nuclear Medicine, MR, CT, and PET, must obtain accreditation as a condition for reimbursement. In addition, it establishes a two year voluntary program to collect data regarding physician compliance with appropriateness criteria in order to determine the appropriateness of advanced diagnostic imaging services furnished to Medicare beneficiaries.

The portion of the legislation requiring accreditation stipulates that the accreditation programs must evaluate that physicians and staff maintain the proper level of training and education; that laboratories use imaging equipment which adheres to strict standards of performance and operates under proper safety guidelines; and that all laboratories establish and maintain a quality assurance program, thereby upholding the standards of quality care for patients, particularly senior citizens.

Updated: Yahoo Unveils Proxy Page -- In a filing with the SEC, Yahoo notes this morning that it has put up a new proxy page at proxyfacts.yahoo.com with the following banner. It pretty much speaks for itself. Update: Per a separate filing, Jerry Yang even made an internal video for Yahoo touting a full campaign to win the vote: “With one of the largest audiences on the Internet, we’re taking full advantage of the power of our network to remind our stockholders why voting for Carl Icahn’s board of directors is a bad choice.”
Of course, with Legg Mason announcing its support of the incumbents, the company is the favorite to hold on.

Analysts On Google: This Quarter Wasn’t So Bad; Long-Term Outlook Still Strong -- We’ll see if Google shares get clipped as badly in today’s trading as they did after hours yesterday... so far it looks like justice may be a bit less severe. Either way, it was not one of its great quarters. The key question: what does it mean for its long-term outlook? Analysts are chiming in with their view, and most remain pretty positive: Doug Anmuth, Lehman: The online ad market is showing cracks, no doubt, between Google, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT), ValueClick (NSDQ: VCLK) and BankRate, but Google is in the best position of all. He noted that Google’s income fell short in part due to lower interest income on its cash pile (which was noted in the release and discussed further in the call).

Facebook Sues German Knockoff Site StudiVZ; Will Others Follow? -- Updated below: Facebook has finally started taking action against its knockoff sites, and has first sued the one most easily accessible in terms of regulatory laws: it has filed a copyright lawsuit against StudiVZ, a German social network which looks very similar, and accuses it of “copying the look, feel, features and services” of the Facebook site, reports FT. The lawsuit was filed in a California court. It says that any differences between the two sites were “nominal” and accused StudiVZ of merely “replacing Facebook’s blue colour scheme with a red one”. The German company that claims 10 million users and calls itself “the most successful social network in Germany, Austria and Switzerland”. Facebook launched a German version a few months ago, but has struggled to gain traction there, the story says. StudiVZ was bought out by Holtzbrinck group, the German publishing giant, for a reported $112 million late in 2006.

Speculation Continues on Napster’s Fate; Could Be Bought By, Well, Anyone -- The speculation about Napster’s fate has been going on ever since it relaunched under the new management, and once again, some new fuel to it: Bloomberg did a piece earlier today, noting that company could become takeover bait for hedge funds as its cash on hand exceeds company’s market cap, with stock continuing to plunge lower and lower (it reached a record-low $1.05 on July 16, but had a run up today becuase of the story). While Napster hasn’t posted a profit in four years, its $69.8 million in cash and inv*stm*nts as of March 31 eclipsed the shares’ $52.1 million value before today, it notes. CEO Chris Gorog has built up cash by slashing sales and marketing expenses by 90 percent to $18 million in the fiscal year ending March, while revenues rose 15 percent to $127.5 million.

ValueClick To Launch Predictive Behavioral Targeting -- ValueClick Media, a division of ValueClick, Inc., is expected to announce the launch of its Precision BT suite today at the OMMA Behavioral conference in San Francisco. The suite combines access to anonymous consumer online behavior with a predictive technology to create a scalable behavioral targeting solution available to marketers via two products: Precision Retargeting, an enhanced version of the user retargeting capabilities offered by ValueClick Media since 2005, and Precision Profiles, which uses a proprietary predictive algorithm to identify a marketer's best prospects in hundreds of consumer interest segments.

AOL Health Adds Content Partners -- Expanding its editorial scope, AOL Health has partnered with a trio of health sites to add elder care information, doctor listings and other health-related articles and video. The site's new content partners include Caring.com, HealthCare.com and Health.com, the online presence of Time Warner's Health magazine, which will supply articles, quizzes, image galleries and videos.

Según la IAC: "Coaching es un proceso transformacional de consciencia personal y profesional, descubrimiento y crecimiento"

Según la ICF: "El coaching consiste en una relación profesional continuada que ayuda a obtener resultados extraordinarios en la vida, profesión, empresa o negocios de las personas. Mediante el proceso de coaching, el cliente profundiza en su conocimiento, aumenta su rendimiento y mejora su calidad de vida."

Según ASESCO: "El Coaching profesional es un proceso de entrenamiento personalizado y confidencial mediante un gran conjunto de herramientas que ayudan a cubrir el vacío existente entre donde una persona está ahora y donde se desea estar.

En la relación de Coaching el coach ayuda al desarrollo personal elevando la conciencia, generando responsabilidad y construyendo auto confianza."

El Coaching ha evolucionado del mundo del deporte, donde los coaches entrenan a jugadores de élite a desarrollar y 'pulir' su desempeño. De allí ha saltado al mundo ejecutivo donde los coaches también ayudan a mejorar el desarrollo y el rendimiento y perfeccionan las competencias de liderazgo de los futuros líderes con logros impactantes.

El coaching es hoy una de las herramientas más efectivas para el desarrollo profesional y es usado por personas de todos los niveles de la organización para conseguir sus metas.

Personalidades conocidas como Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Dustin Hoffman, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep y Rafa Nadal, son algunos de los cientos de famosos exitosos que reconocen haber trabajado con Coaches. No porque tengan sus vidas llenas de problemas sin solución sino, para buscar esa orientación, empuje adicional y toma de consciencia y responsabilidad que los lleve de lo bueno a lo maravilloso, del 'hacerlo bien a hacerlo mejor'.

El coaching ha evolucionado en dos distintos tipos principales: el coaching ejecutivo cuyo enfoque es el logro de objetivos profesionales y organizacionales y el coaching personal que se enfoca en alcanzar metas y el desarrollo personal.

Los estudios demuestran que la formación incrementa la efectividad en un 28% y cuando es seguida de coaching ese nivel de efectividad aumenta a un 88%.

El factor fundamental del calentamiento global son los gases de efecto invernadero producidos por las actividades humanas, pero las variaciones climáticas actuales podrían estar afectas “en torno a un 15 ó un 20%” por la actividad del Sol, según ha indicado el investigador del Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) Manuel Vázquez en la conferencia Sol y Cambio Climático, organizada dentro de los cursos de verano de El Escorial de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid.

[...]

Vía: SINC

Existing big media companies appear to have strongly taken to the philosophy that they are going to survive the current radical shift in broadcasting by purchasing as many big properties as possible instead of developing them.

Nothing exemplifies this better than the acquisition of The Weather Channel by NBC/Universal for $3.5 billion.

What the -- 3.5 billion dollars? Seriously?!?

While The Weather Channel is a large-scale brand that practically owns the weather news vertical, it's highly unlikely that as we progress deeper into the digital age a singular entity called 'The Weather Channel' (or 'weather.com' for that matter) will keep its stranglehold over delivery of meteorological information. In fact, all likelihood points to a gradual shift in that audience The Weather Channel has captured as the internet proliferates more and more independent outlets for information, possibly even ones that offer new and exciting features The Weather Channel can't (the weather social network, anyone?).

NBC/Universal's overpaying for a massively-recognized brand, as well as CBS and CNET's recent marraige, don't necessarily mean that the roll-up company strategy won't work for these major media conglomerates. In fact, there are a few that are particularly successful in their strategic acquisition of properties with rising values and audiences.

These types of business are just more likely to be successful and to have synergy within the organization itself.

A great example is IAC, or InterActive Corp, who recently purchased Lexico publishing, the creators of the very popular dictionary.com and reference.com. Why is IAC's strategy more sound than CBS and NBC's?

Instead of purchasing a turn-key revenue solution like CBS thinks it's done with CNET or NBC think it has with The Weather Channel, IAC understands the value of its smaller companies in relation to its other properties. Take a look at the highlights of the other businesses in IAC's stable:

Ticketmaster
Ask.com
CollegeHumor.com
Match.com
Citysearch.com
evite.com
lendingtree.com

...now that's a tasty roll-up.

Just look at the synergies between those properties and their revenue models. And IAC owns over 60 businesses. While some of those purchases had to be overvalued at the time, IAC's model proves extraordinarily effective when you consider that they've acquired their entire roster of companies for around the same money NBC/Universal dropped on The Weather Channel.

As far as dominating the media landscape in 2018, whose roll-up model are you placing your bets on?